After your gorilla trek, the best things to do near Bwindi are a community or Batwa walk, a forest walk to waterfalls or across the park, birding, and a coffee or craft visit; further afield, Lake Bunyonyi and Lake Mutanda are perfect for resting, Mgahinga offers golden monkeys and volcano hikes, and Queen Elizabeth National Park’s Ishasha sector, known for tree-climbing lions, is a short drive from Buhoma. What makes sense depends on your sector: Buhoma suits Queen Elizabeth, while Rushaga and Nkuringo suit the lakes, Mgahinga and Rwanda.
Around Bwindi
The afternoon after a trek is best kept gentle. Community walks visit farms, traditional healers, banana-beer brewers, schools and craft groups, and Batwa-led experiences tell the story of the forest’s first people; read about the Batwa experience. In Buhoma, a guided forest walk follows a trail to waterfalls, with good birding and other primates. Coffee grown by farmers around the park, including through the conservation enterprise Gorilla Conservation Coffee, can be tasted and bought locally.
With a spare day, fit walkers can hike through the forest between Buhoma and Nkuringo with a ranger, while birders head to Ruhija for Albertine Rift endemics and the Mubwindi Swamp trail; see our Ruhija sector guide. Some visitors book a second gorilla trek or, in Rushaga, the four-hour Gorilla Habituation Experience (US$1,500 in 2026, US$1,800 in 2027).
Lake Bunyonyi and Lake Mutanda
Lake Bunyonyi, about 2–2.5 hours from Rushaga and a little more from Nkuringo, is a calm lake of terraced hills and islands, ideal for a day or two of canoeing, swimming where locals advise it is safe, short walks and doing nothing at all after the trek. Lake Mutanda, near Kisoro, has views of the Virunga volcanoes from the water. See our Lake Bunyonyi guide.
Mgahinga: golden monkeys and volcanoes
Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, near Kisoro and about 1.5–2 hours from Rushaga or Nkuringo, offers golden monkey tracking in the bamboo forest, a gentler and very photogenic primate experience, and day hikes up the Virunga volcanoes Muhavura, Gahinga and Sabyinyo. The Batwa Trail there is another excellent cultural walk. See our guide to golden monkeys in Mgahinga.
Queen Elizabeth National Park
From Buhoma, the Ishasha sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park is about 2–3 hours away, with lions that often rest in fig trees, and the rest of the park offers game drives on the Kasenyi plains and a boat trip on the Kazinga Channel. It is the natural next stop for a safari heading north to Kibale’s chimpanzees. See our guide to Queen Elizabeth National Park.
On the way back, or into Rwanda
If you are driving back to Entebbe, Lake Mburo National Park breaks the long journey and offers zebras, eland and walking or boat safaris. If you are continuing to Rwanda, the southern sectors are a short drive from the border, and Kigali is about 3.5–5 hours away, with options such as Volcanoes National Park and the city’s memorials and museums. Our guide to recovering the day after a trek helps you pace the next days.
Frequently asked questions
Community and Batwa walks, forest walks, birding, coffee visits, or a trip to Lake Bunyonyi, Mgahinga or Queen Elizabeth.
About 2–2.5 hours from Rushaga, and longer from Buhoma.
Yes. Mgahinga is about 1.5–2 hours from the southern sectors of Bwindi.
Queen Elizabeth National Park’s Ishasha sector, about 2–3 hours away.
The activities available near Bwindi after the gorilla trek extend the forest engagement beyond the permitted one-hour encounter into a full day of complementary experiences. A community walk through the adjacent farming landscape — where the history of the park boundary and its impact on local communities can be explored with a local guide — contextualises the conservation story in terms of real lives rather than conservation policy language. The Bwindi Impenetrable Forest visitor centre, located near Buhoma sector gate, provides exhibition materials on the gorilla family histories, the conservation programme’s development, and the forest’s ecological context that enrich post-trek understanding of what was just experienced.
The afternoon after a gorilla trek is best spent in low-intensity activities that allow the morning’s experience to settle — a guided bird walk from the lodge, a community market visit, or simply sitting on a terrace with the afternoon light on the forest canopy. Several lodges near Bwindi’s sector gates have developed structured afternoon programmes specifically for post-trek guests, recognising that the combination of physical fatigue and emotional intensity that the morning produces creates an appetite for gentle engagement rather than additional demanding activities. Visitors who fill the post-trek afternoon with another high-activity option consistently report feeling that they did not give the gorilla encounter the reflective time it deserved.
